A status report on Pa. Legislature's 2013 session

By The Associated Press

Sunday, June 30, 2013

A status report on major legislation as Pennsylvania’s General Assembly winds down its 2013 session:

BUDGET: A nearly $28.4 billion GOP-written spending plan for the fiscal year that starts Monday was signed by Gov. Tom Corbett on Sunday night after approval from the Senate and House earlier in the day. It would increase spending by $719 million, or 2.6 percent, over last year’s approved budget, largely for health care for the poor, social services, prisons, public schools and public employee pensions. It also would extend the life of a business tax, the capital stock and franchise tax, by two years instead of allowing it to expire on Jan. 1. However, a reduction in the tax would still mean a tax cut of about $300 million in the upcoming fiscal year. Several budget-related bills necessary to pay for the spending and guide how the money is spent will arrive at Gov. Tom Corbett’s desk after the budget deadline of Sunday midnight.

TRANSPORTATION FUNDING: The House was unable to find the support to pass an approximately $2 billion transportation bill that scales back a Senate-approved bill to provide $2.5 billion a year. Lawmakers do not expect to reach agreement until the fall session. The Senate plan passed 45-5 in early June, but House Republicans disliked the tax increase while Democrats disliked a deep reduction in mass transit funding in the House plan from the Senate plan. Both plans would increase a wholesale tax on motor fuel, as well as fees and fines on motorists, to expand highway and bridge improvements and help financially struggling mass transit agencies. Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi said the House plan was inadequate. Both chambers must agree before any final plan is sent to Corbett, who rolled out a $1.8 billion plan in February.

LIQUOR PRIVATIZATION: A volatile debate over the future of Pennsylvania’s state-owned liquor and wine stores raged into the session’s final days, and any further votes on the matter are expected to wait until the fall. Early Saturday morning, the Senate Republican majority won a key, preliminary vote on a measure that would allow retail beer distributors to sell liquor and wine and permit certain other stores to sell wine, a more conservative plan than the one proposed by Corbett in January and the one that passed the House in March. It’s not clear whether the Senate’s latest version will win over House leaders. Corbett on Sunday urged the House and Senate to pass the Senate’s version immediately, but Senate Republicans insisted the House first pass a satisfactory transportation funding bill.

PENSION OVERHAUL: Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposal to save $12 billion over 30 years by reducing the future benefits of current state and school employees failed to gain traction in the face of a threatened union lawsuit and Republican leaders’ concerns that it may be unconstitutional. In the final days of the session, lawmakers considered plans to switch all future employees into 401(k)-style plans, but said any further action on pensions would have to wait at least until fall.

MEDICAID EXPANSION: A bill to potentially extend Medicaid eligibility to hundreds of thousands of adult Pennsylvanians under the 2010 federal health-care law passed the Senate, 40-10 on Sunday night. The federal government would pay virtually all of the cost of the expansion but Corbett has balked at approving Pennsylvania’s participation. The bipartisan proposal would impose more than a dozen conditions on Pennsylvania’s participation in response to some GOP lawmakers’ concerns. However, House Republican leaders insist they will not allow a vote on it.